The Original Wiimote Prototypes Have Surfaced on Yahoo Japan

If you were around for the hype around the announcement of Nintendo’s Wii, you’ll probably remember its original codename, Project Revolution. It was planned to revolutionize gaming through the use of motion controls, and it ended up becoming one of the highest selling game consoles in history. But what did Project Revolution look like before it hit store shelves as the Wii? The original prototype went on sale on Yahoo Japan this week (of all places), and now we finally know what it looks like.

The prototype, which sold for the equivalent of $660 USD, shows us a wired yet very Wiimote-looking controller plugged into a GameCube. It even has a Nunchuk attached via an Ethernet cable, for some odd reason. The controller’s dark grey and lowercase control pad and buttons (molded straight from the GameBoy Advance SP production line) show some small differences from the iconic Wii Remote we know today. Also sold was the original sensor bar, which plugged into the GameCube’s memory card slot and had sensors that protruded from the bar in a bubble-like fashion. It’s quite different from the flatness the final sensor bars had.

These weren’t the device’s only design changes either, as James Montagna from WayForward Games points out. In addition to what we saw of the Revolution prototype, James shared photos he took of the Wiimotes from E3 2006 over Twitter, which show “back and pause” buttons instead of the “plus and minus” buttons that we have in our homes.

What do you think of this prototype? Do you think the Wii would have been different if it launched with these controllers? Hit the comments below to let us know what you think!